Former Gov. Pat Quinn, right, with supporters outside the city clerk's office Aug. 6, 2018, at Chicago City Hall. Quinn and demonstrators delivered a stack of petitions calling for a term-limit referendum question for Chicago mayors.

Former Gov. Pat Quinn, right, with supporters outside the city clerk's office Aug. 6, 2018, at Chicago City Hall. Quinn and demonstrators delivered a stack of petitions calling for a term-limit referendum question for Chicago mayors. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune)

Former Gov. Pat Quinn’s push to place a binding referendum question on the November ballot seeking to put term limits on Chicago mayors is ineligible to appear because the City Council put three other referendums on the fall ballot, a Chicago Board of Elections hearing officer said Monday.

The hearing officer also ruled against Quinn’s measure on the basis that he asked more than one question on his petitions. Quinn’s petition included the term-limits question and also asked about an elected city “Consumer Advocate.”

Quinn responded Monday that he “strongly” disagrees with the recommendation and said he’s prepared to fight in court.

The referendum question at issue would ask voters whether Chicago mayors should be limited to two terms. It appeared aimed at preventing Mayor Rahm Emanuel from seeking a third term, though Emanuel last week said he won’t seek re-election. Quinn filed more than 86,000 signatures to put it on the ballot.

The objection to Quinn’s petitions involves three key questions: whether he collected enough valid signatures, whether the City Council’s putting three referendums on the ballot prohibits Quinn’s and whether there can be two referendum questions on one petition.

It preliminarily appeared as though Quinn had enough signatures, but he hit a roadblock on the other questions Monday.

Aldermen voted this summer to put three nonbinding questions before Chicago voters in November. Those questions ask about uses for potential legal marijuana proceeds, the possibility of creating a new homeowners property tax exemption and whether to ban plastic straws.

The Emanuel administration has said that because a state law limits the number of questions on each ballot to three, the council’s batch would leave no space for Quinn’s. The former governor says his binding referendum is unaffected by the three-question rule because it’s a constitutionally protected right of voters to limit the number of terms their mayors can serve.

It’s a common tactic for mayoral allies to fill the ballot with uncontroversial questions like the aldermen did. That way, they and Emanuel can’t get embarrassed by the results of questions they don’t want.

A final decision from the Chicago Board of Elections is still pending.